City's schools review security

Emily Gurnon, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 21, 1999

1999-04-21 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO; COLORADO -- Though schools in San Francisco and across the country have stepped up security in recent years, the tragic shooting in a suburban Denver high school has led local officials and parents to question whether enough has been done to prevent such incidents.

"Each school is supposed to have an emergency response team for whatever kind of emergency - whether natural or man-made - and we have a safety plan that we've talked to the police about," said Ron Rachesky, vice principal at Balboa High School.

"You think of these things and you try to be prepared, but I'm sure you're never prepared for something like that."

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Gwen Chan, the district's associate superintendent for instructional support and operations, said each school's emergency team has been trained for crisis response and is activated by its principals. The teams include faculty and students who have been trained to deal with conflict management.

It's not clear what policies were followed at Columbine High School in the middle-class suburb of Littleton, Colo., where police say two students opened fire on their classmates Tuesday, killing as many as 16.

California law requires all schools to have a safety plan, and children who bring weapons to school can be suspended for as much as a year, said state schools chief Delaine Eastin.

But "things like this always remind you that there are more things that could be done," she said.

Eastin said Tuesday she would like to see more peripheral fencing for schools, more surveillance cameras on campus and a telephone in every classroom.

In the wake of Tuesday's tragedy, Gov. Davis ordered Education Secretary Gary Hart and Frank Grimes, director of the Office of Criminal Justice Planning, to report back in two weeks with recommendations for increasing school safety. Davis also asked cabinet secretary Susan Kennedy to arrange a meeting with him, school officials from around the state and law-enforcement officials to discuss how to prevent such violence.

Fortunately, San Francisco schools have been spared the type of deadly violence that has struck schools in West Paducah, Ky.; Pearl, Miss.; Jonesboro, Ark.; and Springfield, Ore., since 1997.

"You just think, this is where it's supposed to happen, in the big city," Rachesky said, "but I can't remember the last time we had a gun (in the schools)."

But Northern California is no stranger to school violence. In 1989, a heavily armed transient, Patrick Purdy, entered the yard of Stockton's Cleveland Elementary School and opened fire, killing five students and injuring 29 others and a teacher before killing himself.

That incident spurred a nationwide call for stricter control of assault weapons.

As recently as last year, a 13-year-old boy was arrested after firing a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol in a courtyard of Fernando Rivera Middle School in Daly City. The bullet barely missed the school's principal.

The City's Balboa High School has an advantage over some schools in that it is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence, and a security guard is posted at the entrance, Rachesky said.

When she first joined the district 30 years ago, "The idea was, it's a public school, come on down," she said.

Now, the parking lot is locked after school starts in the mornings, security aides patrol the campus and all visitors are required to sign in, Cohen said.

"What we do is try and close off this school as much as possible," she said. But the unarmed security staff would be no match for a violent attack like the one near Denver.

"If the guy comes to the front door with a submachine gun, we're stuck," she said.

San Francisco police officers regularly patrol The City's schools, said district spokeswoman Sandina Robbins, but none of the schools has a metal detector. Such measures could do more harm than good, she said.

"Kids should feel they're there for very positive reasons and not have fear instilled in them," she said.

Across the country, principals and superintendents - worried about copycat incidents of student violence - have cracked down on security since 1997. Congress and states have backed their efforts with money.

But violence is endemic to society, and it's no surprise when children learn that lesson, said John Beem, executive director of the San Francisco-based MOVE, Men Overcoming Violence.

"We tear our hair out about this, and meanwhile we're raining bombs on Serbia because we're unhappy about what they did," Beem said.

Though the children who shot their classmates were clearly sick, he said, "we live in a society where the way most people work is through power and control. It's how capitalism works, it's certainly how the U.S. behaves in the world community."

Dora Balcazar-Dillon of the Mission District rides the school bus with her 7-year-old daughter each day because she's concerned about her safety.

"As a mother, I'm very worried," she said. "I told my husband, it doesn't matter where you are."

Federal officials insist schools are safe. In 1996, theft accounted for 62 percent of crimes against students at school.

In California, the number of guns confiscated from students dropped 11 percent between 1996-97 and 1997-98, said Doug Stone, communications director for the state Department of Education.

School officials took away 647 guns last year, compared with 724 the year before, said Stone, citing figures from the California School Safety Assessment Report.

At the same time, knives became more popular: 5,862 were taken from students in 1997-98 - a 16 percent increase from the previous year, Stone said.

While media attention is focused on the Colorado shooting, parents should take this opportunity to talk to their kids about potential violence in schools, said Lois Salisbury, president of Children Now, a national organization based in Oakland.

While acknowledging how scary and heartbreaking the Colorado incident is, Salisbury said, parents should emphasize that it is extremely rare for children to be hurt at school by this kind of violence.

"It's not realistic for a child to walk around with their heart in their throat worrying it's going to happen to them," she said. Salisbury also suggested reminding children that there are many adults who are looking out for their safety: teachers, neighbors, police.

In response to the news from Littleton, the United Way announced Tuesday that it would dedicate $25,000 toward a school anti-violence fund. The money would be used to buy a cellular phone for every Bay Area classroom, with a long-term goal of establishing student-driven violence-prevention consortiums. For information on donating, call (800) 273-6222.&lt;

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